Restoring Joy In Post-Fire Altadena
Current Project
SUMMARY
Restoring Joy in Post-Fire Altadena is a student-led, arts-based storytelling project responding to the impacts of the Eaton Fire, led by graduate students in the Landscape Justice Initiative. As Altadena rebuilds, the project will identify, document, and celebrate the places, traditions, histories, and community relationships that contribute to the neighborhood’s cultural identity. By centering joy, memory, and connection to the land, the project seeks to ensure that Altadena’s cultural assets remain visible throughout the recovery process.
Residents, displaced community members, artists, and USC students will co-create interactive, place-based experiences using QR-coded signage, geocache-inspired elements, audio recordings, poetry, interviews, murals, and creative prompts. A series of workshops, public walkabouts, and a community procession will contribute to a shared memory archive and physical and digital story map. These resources will remain with community partners as living tools for cultural visibility, advocacy, and long-term stewardship.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- Identify, document, and celebrate the cultural assets, lived histories, and neighborhood traditions that make Altadena a distinctive and resilient community.
- Create opportunities for residents and displaced community members to reconnect with place, memory, land, and one another during the post-fire recovery process.
- Engage residents, artists, students, and community partners in co-creating interactive storytelling experiences across Altadena.
- Transform community mapping into an accessible, participatory experience through QR codes, geocache-inspired interventions, public art, and creative prompts.
- Connect cultural memory with environmental stewardship through planting, soil care, and other land-healing practices.
- Develop a shared memory archive and physical and digital story map that support continued storytelling, advocacy, and community engagement.
- Transfer the project’s tools and resources to local partners to support long-term, community-led stewardship.
